March 14, 2011

If Advertising Isn't Driving You Crazy, You're Not Paying Attention

A little over a year ago my agency pitched an account.

The pitch process took 4 months, entailed 4 different rounds of presentations and included three different consulting companies -- one "search" consultant, one "fee" consultant, and one "production cost" consultant.

Halfway into the pitch process the ceo of the company got fired. They hired a new ceo. He had previously been their ceo but had been fired 5 years earlier.

One month after we got the account, the new old ceo fired their their president, their cmo, and about half their executive team.

Then they fired most of their marketing department.

Then they asked us to pick up some of the work their marketing department had been doing.

Then they asked us to hire someone who would work in their marketing department, but would be on our payroll.

Then they promoted someone else to run their marketing department.

Then they fired him.

Then they promoted someone else to run their marketing department.

Then they fired us.

Then, during the 90-day notice period, we got written feedback from the newest person running the marketing department about 2 spots we were finishing for them. Quote:

"Everyone is in LOVE with these spots...I'm telling you - there is some serious excitement from everyone... Pass on the love... great job!"

So I passed on the love. Particularly to the people who we had to lay off when they fired us.

Then, a few weeks later, we got an email from them asking if we would like to re-pitch the account.

Ad Contrarian Says:

"Marketers prefer precise answers that are wrong to imprecise answers that are right."

"Creative people make the ads. Everyone else makes the arrangements."

"Delusional thinking isn't just acceptable in marketing today -- it's mandatory.""Good ads appeal to us as consumers. Great ads appeal to us as humans."

"Social Media: Tens of millions of disagreeable people looking to make trouble."

"Brand studies last for months, cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, and generally have less impact on business than cleaning the drapes."

"The idea that the same consumer who was frantically clicking her TV remote to escape from advertising was going to merrily click her mouse to interact with it is going to go down as one of the great advertising delusions of all time."

"Nobody really knows what "creativity" is. Every year thousands of people take a pilgrimage to find out. This involves flying to Cannes, snorting cocaine, and having sex with smokers."

"Marketers overestimate the attraction of new things and underestimate the power of traditional consumer behavior."

"We don’t get them to try our product by convincing them to love our brand. We get them to love our brand by convincing them to try our product."

"As an advertising medium, the web is like communism. It's never very good right now, but it's always going to be great some day."

"In American business, there is nothing stupider than the previous generation of management."

"If the message is right, who cares what screen people see it on? If the message is wrong, what difference does it make?"

"The only form of product information on the planet less trustworthy than advertising is the shrill ravings of web maniacs."

"In the entire history of civilization, nothing good ever happened to a teenager after midnight."

"There's no bigger sucker than a gullible marketer convinced he's missing a trend."

"All ad campaigns are branding campaigns. Whether you intend it to be a branding campaign is irrelevant. It will create an impression of your brand regardless of your intent."

"Nobody ever got famous predicting that things would stay pretty much the same."